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This volume examines how elections and reform across West Asia and North Africa function less as routes to alternation than as instruments of control. Anchored by an integrative introduction and a concluding synthesis, it gathers original studies showing how rules, parties, patronage, and civic mobilisation organise political life.
Contributors trace how incumbents bend law and voting cycles through pliant oversight to simulate responsiveness while weakening opponents, as turnout declines and protest recurs. In some polities electoral forms recede altogether: ballots are suspended, assemblies fall silent, and authority is channelled through appointments and managed consultation.
Israel appears as a democratic outlier under a highly proportional electoral system, a foil to the region s managed pluralism and electoral authoritarianism. Libya is conceptualised as non-electoral fragmented authoritarianism, where institutional absence hardens into elite bargains and armed networks.
Organised thematically, rather than by country, the volume shows how electoral ritual and performance reshape representation and legitimacy across the region.
List of contents
Chapter 1: Introduction: Between Contestation and Control: Electoral Politics and the Quest for Representation in West Asia and North Africa.- Part I: Electoral Engineering and Regime Legitimation.- Chapter 2: The Illusion of Reform: Electoral Politics and Monarchical Power in Jordan.- Chapter 3: Egypt s Electoral Politics Post-2011: Legitimacy and Authoritarian Control.- Chapter 4: Parliamentary Elections and the Road to Reform in Post-Arab Spring Morocco.- Chapter 5: Saudi Arabia: Electoral Formalism and the Limits of Citizen Participation under Absolute Monarchy.- Part II: Opposition Dynamics and Constrained Pluralism.- Chapter 6: Elections and Executive Power in Kuwait s Monarchy: Reversal of Opposition Gains, 2012 2024.- Chapter 7: Türkiye s 2023 Elections: Opposition Setbacks and Future Prospects.- Chapter 8: Authoritarian Governance and Elections in the UAE and Bahrain: A Comparative Analysis.- Chapter 9: The Illusion of Consensus: Electoral Politics and the Challenge of Governance in Tunisia.- Part III: Institutional Fragility and Contested Sovereignty.- Chapter 10: The Question of People s Representation in Iran: Negotiating Democracy with Divinity .- Chapter 11: Between Ballots and Bullets: The Political Meaning of Libya s Missing Elections.- Chapter 12: Contesting Representation: Hamas and Electoral Politics in a Divided Palestine.- Chapter 13: Lebanese Electoral Politics: Consociationalism and its Limitations.- Chapter 14: Elections and Representation in Post-Saddam Iraq: Institutional Fragility and Sectarian Politics.- Part IV: Electoral Engagement and Limits of Participation.- Chapter 15:
About the author
Sujata Ashwarya is Professor at the Centre for West Asian (Middle Eastern) Studies, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. She has published widely on West Asian politics, India–West Asia relations, and the political economy of energy, including Israel’s Mediterranean Gas and The Arab Spring: Ten Years On.
Mujib Alam is Professor at the MMAJ Academy of International Studies, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. His research focuses on the politics and international relations of West Asia; his publications include Arab Spring and Its Legacies and Perspectives on Turkey’s Multi-Regional Role in the 21st Century.
